


Wedding

by MyOwnSuperintendent



Series: Welcome [7]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-15
Updated: 2020-05-15
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:27:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,632
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24204382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyOwnSuperintendent/pseuds/MyOwnSuperintendent
Summary: The Mulder-Scully family comes together to celebrate Emily's wedding. Set after the previous fics in the "Welcome" universe.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Welcome [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/899139
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	Wedding

**Author's Note:**

> I don't own The X-Files or anything related to it. Hope you enjoy!

Emily’s smiling when she walks through the door. “Hi, everyone!”

“Hi, Emily!” Will’s the first to hug her, which he thinks is fair. Since she moved to Washington a couple of years ago for grad school, their parents get to see her a lot more often than he does; he only gets to see her at times like this, vacations and holidays.

Not that he doesn’t still know her pretty well. When she’s hugging their parents and putting her things down, he studies her face; he can see that she has something to tell them. Something good, he thinks. And he’s right, because the next minute she’s taking off her gloves and holding out her left hand, and her smile is even bigger than before. “Steve and I got engaged.”

“Emily!” Their mom hugs her again, for good measure. “Oh, that’s wonderful news, sweetheart!”

“I know. I’m so excited,” Emily says, and then they all sit down in the living room to ask her questions. Will would be lying if he claimed to be super into either proposals or wedding planning, when in fact they are very low down on his list of interests. But he knows this means a lot to Emily, that Steve makes her really happy, so he can’t even be bored by the conversation right now.

Steve asked her when he came to visit over the weekend. “He didn’t do one of those crazy proposals. I don’t think I would have liked that. He just asked me over dessert.”

They haven’t thought that much about the details of the wedding yet. “It’ll be after I graduate. We’ll probably do it in Wyoming,” she says. “Since Steve’s there and a lot of our friends. I’m looking into jobs there, too.” That gets Will’s attention—the thought of Emily moving back. He likes Virginia, has gotten used to it, but Wyoming’s still really home for him. It would be nice to be able to visit Emily there, to have someone to stay with who’s unquestionably family. He’ll miss having her here, though. “But we haven’t really thought about a lot of specific plans yet. I just know I want all of you there.”

“Well, that’s good,” their dad says, laughing, “because you probably wouldn’t be able to keep us away.”

“I mean I want you all to be part of it,” Emily says. “Mom, would you help me choose a dress? I’d really like to do that together.”

“Of course,” their mom says. “That sounds wonderful.”

“And Dad,” Emily says, “will you walk me down the aisle?”

Will looks at their dad; he can tell this means a lot to him. He’s not Emily’s dad in the same way that he’s Will’s; usually it doesn’t seem to make any difference, but Will thinks it does a little now. Like it’s even more important that Emily’s asking him to do something that dads always do. “That would be an honor,” he says, and he leans over to hug her quickly.

“What do you want me to do?” Will asks.

Emily smiles at him. “I definitely want you to be in the wedding,” she says. “You can be my brides-man. Or whatever they call it when it’s a guy.”

“You don’t want one of your friends for that?” he asks.

“No,” Emily says. “You’re my brother. You’ve been with me forever. If you were my sister you’d be on my side, so why should you have to go on Steve’s side? I want you up there with me.”

He’s glad that she’s asking him. Because it’s true what she says: they have been together forever, as long as he can remember, anyway. And he wants to be a part of this, on this day that’s going to make her happy. “That sounds great, then,” he says.

“Can I ask you something?” Emily says. They’re eating lunch in a café, before heading to try on dresses.

“Of course,” Scully says.

“I was wondering…why didn’t you and Dad ever get married?”

It’s a fair question and not necessarily one she knows the answer to herself. “I’m not sure,” Scully says. “Maybe it hasn’t seemed…we know we love each other. With or without the legal commitment.”

“Oh, I know,” Emily says. “I just wondered…didn’t you ever want to? I mean, I love Steve even if I’m not married to him. But that’s why I want to get married.”

“Well, there was a practical side to it,” Scully says. “For a long time, we were separated or hiding out or all kinds of things. And once it was possible…it just wasn’t our priority, I guess. We’d been together without it for so long by then. There wasn’t anything that could really bring us closer.”

Emily nods, thoughtfully. She takes a bite of her sandwich, chews, and swallows. “Do you think you ever would?” she asks.

Scully thinks about it. She’s never felt anything lacking with Mulder because they’re not married, especially now: the two of them are better together than they’ve ever been. She doesn’t doubt that he’ll always be there, doesn’t doubt their partnership. She doesn’t think waking up next to him every morning would be any sweeter just because they were wearing rings.

But she knows why Emily’s asking. She sees the excitement in her daughter’s eyes so often these days, when she’s planning this public commitment to someone she loves. Maybe that’s the one aspect she might envy: the public side. The two of them have spent so much time hiding.

“Nothing’s impossible,” she eventually says. “But we’re very happy as we are, really, sweetheart. I hope you’re not worried we’re going to split up or anything.” She smiles.

Emily smiles back. “Oh, of course not,” she says. “I know you guys are really happy.”

It sounds so simple, almost too easy for them, and yet today it’s true. “We are,” she says.

“There’s actually something else I wanted to ask, about that,” Emily says. “Do you have any advice for me?”

“What kind of advice?” Scully asks.

“Just about…being with someone,” Emily says. “Living together and being together all the time. And being happy.”

That’s a tricky one too; she’s not sure she and Mulder have set up a road map that she wants Emily to follow. Maybe they needed the journey to reach the destination, or whatever that crap is, but she’d just as soon have skipped some steps of the journey, taken a shortcut to get to where they’ve ended up. Still, there must be something she can tell her daughter. “You have to talk to each other,” she says. “Be open about how you feel. It took your dad and I forever to get to that point. I wish we’d done it sooner.” Emily nods, watching her. “And don’t let things get in the way of what you have.”

“What kinds of things?” Emily asks.

So many kinds. “Other people,” she says. “Sad things. Life.” She’s wanted her kids to know the truth about their lives, the decisions they made, and she’s told them a lot over the last few years, the ones she’s had with them. But there are still times when she doesn’t want to go into too much detail. They shouldn’t have to share that hurt.

And today shouldn’t be a day of hurt, especially. Not when it’s beautiful out—one of the first really nice days of spring—and when Emily’s about to try on dresses to get married in, and when she’s so happy and in love. Not when Scully’s happy too, with the life she’s living now: with a partner and a daughter and a son who all make her inexpressibly glad.

“And,” she says, “one more thing for living together. Make sure he doesn’t leave food in the refrigerator until it molds.”

Emily starts to laugh at that, and Scully laughs too. And then they finish their lunch and go. Emily looks beautiful in the dresses she tries, her hair bright red against the white fabric.

He hasn’t been to that many weddings, Mulder realizes. Some when he was younger, after college and in grad school, but since then not a lot. He guesses it’s because he didn’t have that many friends, and the ones he did have weren’t exactly the marrying kind. (He tries to imagine a wedding for any of the Gunmen. The thought makes him laugh, and miss them a little, as he often does.) That may be the reason that the trappings they’re dealing with—all this catering and balloons—seem pretty bewildering to him.

But he wants to give Emily everything that will make her happy. This isn’t going to be a big wedding, and Emily and Steve are putting a lot of it together themselves, with help from their families. Steve’s parents seemed suspicious of Mulder and Scully at first; he assumed it was because Emily and Steve had grown up together, because they’d known Emily for so long as the daughter of the Van de Kamps. But now they’ve warmed up. They talk about the weather, and baseball standings, and mostly about their kids. “I still can’t believe they’re old enough to get married,” Steve’s mother said the other day, and Mulder had to agree. He still remembers little Emily drawing her potato. The next time he saw her she was in her twenties. It’s a lot to wrap your head around.

They’re having the wedding at the house where the kids grew up, the one they’ve kept on. Once a year or so they discuss selling it. So far, they haven’t decided anything. But it’s a beautiful place, anyway, with a big yard. A great place to get married, everyone’s agreed.

And now the wedding’s tomorrow. The balloons are in boxes on the porch, waiting to be blown up. The food will be delivered in the morning. It doesn’t seem like there’s much left.

“Not much left to do, huh?” It seems like Scully’s read his thoughts, which isn’t a new sensation. She’s standing in the doorway by the porch, looking out at him.

“Nope.” He pats the spot next to him, and she settles down. She’s wearing a tank top and shorts; her hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and her cheeks are a little flushed from the sun. She smiles at him. She still makes his heart skip, maybe even more so now: these past few years, when they’ve finally been a family, them and the kids, and there have been so many new things to make her happy. He kisses her temple. “Where’s Emily?” he asks.

“With Steve,” Scully says. “They’re going to get dinner and go over everything one last time before tomorrow.”

“And Will?”

“With some of his friends,” Scully says. A lot of William’s friends from growing up are still around here; he’s been hanging out with them every day, since he doesn’t get to see them as much anymore.

“Just us then,” Mulder says.

“Mm-hm,” Scully says. They’re quiet for a minute, just enjoying each other’s company. “I can’t believe it’s tomorrow,” she says. “I’m going to miss her.”

“I know,” Mulder says. “Me too.” They want Emily to be where she’s happy. But they wish that was somewhere closer to them.

“But I guess…I know it’s a normal thing,” Scully says. “Kids growing up and living their own lives. I should be glad about it.”

“I know you’re glad for her,” Mulder says. “No doubt about that. But you’re allowed to miss her too. I don’t think she’d mind that.”

“I hope not,” Scully says. “And we can visit, of course. When we pack it in.” They’ve been talking about retirement more recently. It would be nice to keep traveling with her, for pleasure instead of work or flight. To keep seeing the world together. To have all the time with their family they could want.

“Would you want to move out here?” he asks. “We’d be near her then. Will might like it too.”

She doesn’t answer right away; she’s studying the landscape. “I like our house,” she says eventually. “But this is a nice place too.”

It’s not yes or no, but then he’s not sure either, and they don’t have to jump to anything. There’s no big hurry. The kids are here now, part of their lives, and they’ll stay that way, even if, on days like today, they seem to be growing up crazily fast.

Emily was nervous about choosing an outdoor wedding, because you never knew about the weather. They’d picked it in the end, because it would be really nice if it worked out, but she was still a little worried, even so.

But today is perfect, so there wasn’t anything to worry about. She can see the blue sky through the window when she’s getting dressed. Her mom is helping her.

“You look beautiful,” her mom says softly, when she’s in her dress with her hair done, standing in front the mirror. She’s craning her neck a little to look over Emily’s shoulder. Emily’s taller than her mom. She doesn’t know why. “My baby,” she says, hugging Emily gently so that the dress won’t crinkle. Emily doesn’t know if she’s ever called her that before. She was never a baby for her mom, not really. But she hugs back. She likes hearing it today.

Her dad’s on the porch, ready to walk with her. His face looks serious. “Are you nervous?” she asks him.

“Oh, he’s been up half the night practicing,” her mom says. It says something about her dad that Emily’s not one hundred percent sure she’s joking.

“I’m all right,” he says, holding up his hands. “Just a big day, that’s all.”

“It is a big day,” Emily says. “That’s why I’m glad you’re here.”

When the music starts, she takes his arm. She watches her mom sitting down, watches Will walking ahead of them. Mostly she watches Steve, standing there at the end of the aisle. They walk towards him together, her and her dad.

When she and Steve are saying their vows, she knows with a certainty that this is right.

They have the food on the lawn too, and the weather stays beautiful; everything’s worked out today, which might be a miracle, if the stories on wedding planning sites are anything to go by. She talks to everyone, but she keeps coming back to Steve, winding her hand through his, kissing him quickly. Maybe even not so quickly. They’re married now, after all.

But Will is the last person she talks to before they go. She finds him by the buffet, wrapping cookies in a napkin. “How many of those are you taking?” she asks.

“Five,” he says, and when she makes a face at him, “It’s almost over anyway. Besides, I won’t get to eat stuff you bake anymore, so I’d better stock up.”

“You’ll still get to eat things I bake,” Emily says. “Marrying Steve doesn’t mean he gets all of my cookies. Just seventy percent or so.”

“Yeah, I know,” he says. “Still. I’ll miss you,” he adds, quickly, as if he doesn’t want to make too big a deal out of it. But Emily knows.

“I’ll miss you too, Will,” she says. “But we’ll still visit a lot. And we’ll video chat and everything.” She hugs him. “Thanks for standing up with me today.”

“Of course,” he says. “You’re my sister.”

“Always,” she says, and he smiles at that. She sees him put another cookie into the napkin, but she doesn’t say anything.

She waves to him and her mom and dad as she gets into the car, and then she winds her hand through Steve’s again. It’s been a beautiful day.


End file.
